There’s a lot of planning that goes into a great vacation. From researching places and the best times to visit to finding promotional prices on hotel stays, we invest dozens of hours in our pre-trip preparation to make sure everything is right. just as we finally arrive at our dream destination.
And then, in the blink of an eye, the holidays are over. Whether it was a family reunion on Lake Michigan or a honeymoon in St. Barts, the trip was not only something you looked forward to and experienced, but something you you will also want to remember forever. Our favorite way to commemorate fond travel memories is with a photo album.
Perfect for displaying on a coffee table or bookshelf for years to come, photo books are the best way to encapsulate all the adventures, laughs, and perfect (and less than perfect!) discoveries of your trip. Freeze all your favorite vacation moments in time with a tangible photo book because, well, it’s the ultimate keepsake – and proof of all the hard work you’ve put into the trip! Here are our 10 favorite services for creating photo books online, ranging from luxury options covered in linen and leather to more economical same-day selections.
From $19.99 at Mpix
What we love about Mpix is the sheer number of options the site has when it comes to photo books. With three categories to choose from – Economy Hard Cover, Premium (soft and hard) and Signature Albums – the books run the gamut from $19.99 and up to $184.99 for a hardcover book. leather with debossing. The Economy Hard Cover option is the best value, whether you opt for an art fabric cover (from $19.99) or the personalized cover with a photo engraved on it (from $34.99 $). Building books on the Mpix site is a breeze, as it offers dozens of templates. Photos are easy to upload, drag and drop onto the page and edit in the layout. We built a 40-page book in about 45 minutes, and the end product had crisp, bright images. Mpix books are made in the USA, have thousands of positive customer reviews, and most orders ship within 48 hours.
From $17 at Artifact Uprising
A source for a myriad of photo book options, Artifact Uprising is popular for all manner of photo-related items – from holiday cards and calendars to framed prints – primarily because the quality of everything it produces is so good. Our favorite options include the ultra-affordable Color Series Photo Books, which start at just $22 and are softcover and made from 100% recycled paper, and the Hardcover Photo Books, which are pricier at $72. $, but trust us, they’re worth every penny. Artifact Uprising also recently launched the Hardcover Travel Photo Book, which focuses specifically on creating vacation scrapbooks with organized layouts and a linen cover with a customizable dust jacket. Another great option: The Linen-Covered Daily Small Photo Book ($62) comes in one size and six colors and is perfect if you’re trying to knock down a few holiday photo albums at once. Seriously, lining a few up along a shelf or on a coffee table would be an immediate conversation starter.
$19.98 From $14.99 at Shutterfly
A mainstay of online photo printing, Shutterfly was first launched in 1999 and the company has since produced digital photo products for the masses, including a host of book options. Offering a variety of sizes and covers, including soft, hard, and leather-bound, Shutterfly’s custom book options are plentiful, as are book creation services. The new Make My Book service, for example, lets you upload all your photos, select a book size and style, and a Shutterfly designer will format the entire book for you! (Never fear, you have final editing privileges.) All of the brand book pages can be fully customized with text, fonts, and colors, and for a seamless view of your photos, opt for the upgrade to flat page style.
From $14.99 at Printique
If you’re looking for deluxe, heirloom-quality albums to commemorate your travels, Printique is a great option. Offering a variety of softcover, cloth, and hardcover books, the fanciest option in the online photo shop is the handmade, leather-bound book starting at $153.99. Available in eight sizes, in vegan or genuine leather, in 13 colors and with five types of professional archival paper, the leather books also have lay-flat binding. Printique’s built-in desktop editor makes it easy to upload and organize your photos, and we liked the “hide used photo” feature when laying out. Additionally, the brand has nearly 4,000 positive reviews on Trustpilot.
From $9.59 at Mixbook
Boasting some of the best customization on the market, Mixbook is consistently a firm favorite with publishers and consumers – it has over 27,000 5-star reviews on Trustpilot – because creating (and editing) the brand’s photo books is simply easy. For one, you can upload photos from anywhere (from your phone, computer, Google Photos, or even social media), and when it comes to designing a layout, the digital editor lets you customize images by implementing text, stickers, layouts and more. . Once you have created your album, Mixbook allows you to choose the size of the book, the type of cover and the quality of the paper. Overall, the process is intuitive, the product quality is superb, and the Mixbook app is one of the best we’ve used.
$39.99 From $27.99 at Paper Culture
With sustainability at its core, Paper Culture is a digital photo company that not only creates beautiful, design-driven products, but does so while actively working to solve the climate crisis. Paper Culture plants a tree for every order received and also prints its products on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Offering three levels of books (printed hardcover, flat-printed hardcover, and Kraft hardcover with dust jacket), the brand also offers two sizes and dozens of themes to choose from. From here, you can customize your photo book by adjusting layouts, fonts, text, and colors. Yes, you’ll pay extra for Paper Culture’s sustainability efforts, but after testing the products, we can vouch for the brand’s quality and craftsmanship.
From $10.96 at Walmart
Do you want to create a holiday memory for your family and friends? Walmart is a great option for doing this, mainly because the big-box retailer has affordable prices and super-fast turnaround times. Offering soft, hard, linen and leather books in six sizes and with the optional flatbed upgrade, Walmart produces decent quality books that can be delivered to your home within days or picked up at your nearest store. . store the same day — or even within the hour depending on your choice of book! The site is easy to use and offers all the customization you might expect elsewhere (including captions and image editing). Just beware that in our experience the quality is worth the price – the book paper is a little thinner and the photos are slightly duller than competitors.
From $12.99 at Snapfish
Creating photo books is a breeze with Snapfish’s easy-to-use templates that include over 200 custom layouts. Or, you have the option of creating your own. Customize captions, fonts, embellishments and more in your own book. Offering hard, soft, matte, linen and leather books in six sizes – and with a new upgrade option for glossy interior pages – Snapfish also lets you save your project and continue editing it later, a great feature for those of us who can’t do it all in one session!
From $6.99 at CVS
Another solid option for fast-running photo books is CVS. Offering soft, hardcover, linen and leather books in seven sizes, CVS’s main selling point is that four types of books (including hardcovers) are available for same-day pickup at your local store. Simply upload images from your computer, social media accounts or phone; choose from dozens of themed templates; and drag and drop (and tilt!) images into the layout or choose the quick autofill option which will have your book – which can contain up to 150 pages – ready to be muted.
$13 From $9.10 at Vista Print
Digital marketing company Vista is known for producing business cards and banners for small businesses, but given its printing prowess, the brand is also into photo album books. Offering a streamlined set of options, Vista’s books are available in two covers (linen hardcover or photo embossed), seven sizes, and two paper choices (gloss and matte). Professionally bound books are up to 120 pages, can even be produced from your phone on the Vista app, and ship within five to eight business days.
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